Runaway Pup
by SkyeXChase
Summary: When Chase and Marshall have an argument that quickly transforms into a war, Chase is the one who gets punished. He becomes depressed for several days til he finally decides to say goodbye to Adventure Bay for good.
1. Chapter 1

**Part 1**

A bright and warm morning was occurring in Adventure Bay. All six pups, happily and playfully ran around the playground tackling and wrestling each other. While they were having the time of their lives, Ryder and Katie were watching them with sunglasses over their eyes. On the ground beside Ryder was a cooler filled with ice pops, juices, and bottles of water.

Katie turned to look at Ryder and smiled, lifting her shades.

"This is such a wonderful afternoon!" she cried. Ryder looked at her and smiled. "I'm so happy I get to spend more time with you." the way she said that caused Ryder to blush in embarrassment.

"Yeah, m-me too, Katie." he stuttered.

"Yeah.. It sure is nice and hot today."

"Isn't it?" Marshall said as he came running towards Katie and Ryder. "It's a great day to go to the pool. Who's with me?"

"Marshall..." Ryder rolled his eyes in annoyance. "The pool is right over there."

"Where? I don't see anything.."

Ryder sighed, losing his patience.

"Marshall, seriously." Marshall chuckled.

"I'm just joking." he looked at Katie and smirked. "Hey Katie. Lookin' good in that bikini." Katie blushed a bit and giggled uncontrollably. "Yeah, Ryder wanted to tell you that, but couldn't, so he asked me to tell you for em'." Ryder frowned at the dalmatian angrily.

"Marshall..!" he growled. Marshall laughed.

"I'll be in the pool if you need me." he said as he charged away from the two. Katie was chuckling.

"He's so funny." she said.

"Yup, he's the class clown, alright." Ryder agreed, trying to smile.

"I already know he was just playing."

"Oh, yeah.. That's a great thing." he sighed in relief.

"But you know.. if you really did say that about me, I would've taken it as a compliment." she said, blushing a bit. Ryder smiled, blushing as well.

Chase and Skye were in the swimming pool, holding paws in the water. Both were giggling as they were twirling around and around. Once they stopped, both just smiled at each other, staring into each others' eyes. Chase frowned when he suddenly heard a voice whispering in his ear,

"Kiss her, kiss her, kiss her..." he turned to see Marshall behind him. Skye blushed and frowned. Chase did the same.

"Really, Marshall?" said Skye.

"Sorry if I were interrupting anything." Marshall chuckled as Chase and Skye rolled their eyes.

"Not a problem.." Chase tried to sound patient.

"I need a private talk with you. So, you're gonna have to abandon your uh, partner."

Chase looked at Skye and sighed.

"Sorry, Skye..." Skye sighed and swam away, rolling her eyes. The police pup looked back at Marshall with a frown on his face. "Did you have to do that?"

"Look, I'm very sorry for interrupting your moment with Skye, but I really need to talk to you."

"Is this way more important than me and Skye actually getting to know more about each other?"

"Yes, I promise you."

Chase sighed.

"Alright, but make it fast."

"Ok, uh -" before Marshall could say what he wanted, he noticed the other pups in the pool playing around with one another and laughing. "We might have to step out."

After the two pups were out of the pool, and had shook the water off of their drenched bodies, they started walking further away from Ryder and the others.

"So what's up, Marshall?" Chase asked.

"I know this is probably just between Zuma and well... himself, but do you know if he's in a relationship with anybody?" Marshall asked.

"Why would I know the answer to that?"

"Well, sometimes Zuma would tell you anything."

"Oh, well, I have know idea. Why are you asking me, anyways?"

"He's been acting very different lately."

"Daydreaming?"

"More than that. Sometimes he'd call me or the other pups Marble."

Chase giggled. "He's called me that once, too. But I didn't think he was in love."

"I saw him talking with this good lookin' pup. He was telling her jokes, flirting with her, and even -"

"Are you telling me you were eavesdropping on them two?" Chase stopped smiling and started to frown.

"Well, I wouldn't say I was eavesdropping, but I.. uhh... overheard them."

"Marshall, you can't do that. You know how sensitive Zuma could be."

"Well I couldn't help it!"

"You are so lucky you weren't caught, and you're so lucky I won't tell Zuma about this. Stop being the nosy spy you are, and grow up, Marshall!" his voice started to raise. "You do this to everyone! I swear!"

"Everyone? Prove it!"

"You watched me and Skye, you saw and listened to Zuma and his "girlfriend's" conversation, you sort of ruined Jake's date, you revealed Alex's secret crush, you got almost the entire town calling Cap'n Turbot a coward after he accidentally knocked Mayor Goodway off his boat, and you embarrassed Ryder in front of Katie!"

"So? That's not everybody. If I embarrassed everybody, that would be this whole town of Adventure Bay! Duh! Use "everybody" in the correct sentence!"

"Well when I said everybody, I didn't mean this whole town of Adventure Bay. Duh!"

"You know what, forget it! This is the dumbest argument I've ever had with you, Chase!" Marshall was becoming louder as he spoke, getting the others' attention.

"Yeah, great idea. And stop yelling at me for no reason!" Chase hollered into the dalmatian's face.

"No reason?! It's funny, because I'm yelling at you for a reason!"

"Yeah?! Tell me what reason!" All the pups formed a circle around the two quarreling pups.

"Because you're yelling at me for no reason!"

"Only because you started yelling at me for no reason!"

"No, you started it! Now shut up and leave me alone!" Marshall turned and was about to walk away, but before he knew it, Chase tackled the dalmatian to the ground so he wouldn't be able to get back up.

"Who did you just tell to shut up?" Chase growled. Marshall was groaning, struggling to get out of Chase's grip.

"Some pup called Chase, duh!"

"Well some pup called Marshall needs to take back what he said."

"Make me!"

"Oh, I'll make you, alright!"

But without warning, Marshall was able to jump back up on his feet and was now on top of Chase.

"Or not!"

"Marshall, I swear, you -" before Chase could finish, he felt Marshall's claws dig into his chest. Skye put her paws in front of her eyes so she wouldn't be able to see. She felt terrible watching the two best friends' squabbling. The german sheppard whimpered in agony, trying to squirm out of place.

"What were you gonna say?"

"Marshall... S-Stop!"

"Look at you, you can't even get up and defeat me."

"Marshall, dude.." Zuma said, getting worried about Chase. Finally, Chase was able to bite the dalmatian's arm, causing him to screech with pain. He fell onto his side, which allowed Chase to get on top of him again.

"Try me, and you're dead!" the german sheppard growled.

"Not if you're dead first!" Marshall jumped up and tackled the police pup down to the ground. Both started wrestling each other - and it wasn't all fun and games either, they were fighting like they really hated each other.

"Oh no! I can't watch!" Rubble cried, looking away.

Marshall grabbed Chase by his collar with his teeth, then tossed him on top of Rocky.

"Ouch!" Rocky groaned. Chase growled and got back onto his feet, then zoomed towards the dalmatian. Marshall only smirked and jumped in the air, then landed on top of Chase's back.

"Ohh..! My back!" he moaned in pain.

"Tell me you give up, Chase!" Marshall begged him, biting his tail with his sharp teeth.

"Oww... P-Please! Stop!"

"I'll stop if you give up."

"Marshall!" hollered Skye, getting angrier watching Chase get beat by his own best friend.

"Marshall..! Seriously! Cut it out!" he squirmed and placed a paw on Marshall's foot.

"If you don't say it, I'll -" without warning, Chase pushed Marshall off of him.

Katie and Ryder were running towards the fighting pups.

"Marshall! Chase!" Ryder hollered, but he wasn't even close to the formed circle when he suddenly tripped over a seashell and dropped a bottle of spray-on sunscreen. Chase caught it in his mouth and walked closer to Marshall's face with it. He held it in his paws and smirked.

"Say cheese!" Then he pressed the button with his nose and sprayed the sunscreen in the dalmatian's eyes, causing him to scream in pain. He closed his eyes and placed his paws on them.

"G-God Chase! Why?!" he hollered. Chase smirked and grabbed onto Marshall's tail with his teeth and dragged him out of the circle and towards the pool. "No! Get off of me!"

"No way. You saw me in pain. Now it's my turn to watch you suffer." Finally, the pup tossed Marshall into the swimming pool.

The pups gasped and charged over to Chase.

"Chase?!" Chase heard an angry call from Ryder. His ears dropped, and he turned around to look at his owner.

"R-Ryder.. I can explain..!"

"You can explain when we get into the lookout." Ryder didn't look too proud at all.

Marshall swam up to the concrete and climbed out.

"You're dead, now." he said aloud in Chase's ear while he shook the water off his soaked up body.

"Marshall, so are you." Ryder said, causing Marshall to drop his head. "Come on, you two." the two followed their owner. "We'll be back, Katie."

"Ok." Katie replied with a concerned look on her face.

A few minutes later, Marshall and Chase were in the lookout, not saying a word to one another. Both were badly injured; Marshall's eyes were swelled up really bad, his arm had bite marks on it and was a bit red, and he was soaked. Chase's tail was only chewed up, his back was hurting, and his chest had claw marks on it. Ryder was studying the pups' injuries, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Well, it looks like the both of you were pretty hard on each other." he said, holding and looking at the dalmatian's arm. Chase sighed and dropped his head.

"Ryder sir.. I didn't wanna do that to him, but he started it." Chase explained.

"Did not. He's the one who tackled me, so that counts as hitting me first." Marshall said.

"Does not!"

"Hey! Calm it down, both of you." Ryder said. The two quickly shut their mouths. "I don't care about who started it. What I'm really focused on is the way you two are acting around each other." Marshall and Chase glanced at one another. "You guys no better than to hurt each other like that. You're best friends."

"Were best friends." Marshall mumbled.

"Look, I know it's hard for you two to make it up to one another, but I need you both to stay close." the pups' nodded in understanding. "Now please, look at each other and say sorry."

Marshall rolled his eyes and looked at Chase.

"Sorry.." he said quietly.

"Tell him why you're sorry." Ryder added.

"Sorry for jumping on your back and biting your tail."

"Sorry I sprayed sunscreen in your eyes and threw you in the swimming pool." Chase apologized, trying not to give the dalmatian eye contact.

"Thank you." Ryder smiled. "Please, no more fighting from now on, Ok?" the two nodded. "Good. Now you may leave."

Once Marshall and Chase were out of the lookout, both just sat in the grass next to each other, not wanting to speak to one another.

"So, uh..." Chase started, "are we cool now?" Marshall looked at the german sheppard and twitched a small smile.

"Sure." he answered.

"Marshall! Chase!" both saw the others zooming towards them.

"Are you guys okay?" Rocky asked.

"Yeah, I was worried." Rubble said.

"Of course we are." Marshall said. "This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't brought that situation up. Right Chase?"

"Yeah, and we wouldn't have fought each other if I hadn't tackled you the way I did." Chase admitted.

"I'm glad you both are still talking to each other." Katie said. "I would hate to see such great friends walk around giving each other the silent treatment."

"I'd hate it, too." Skye said.


	2. Chapter 2

It was eight o' clock at night. The pups were getting ready for bed, saying goodnight to one another and Ryder as well.

Once the pups were in their doghouses, and Ryder went into the house to get some sleep, Chase and Skye stayed out for a while to talk some more.

"Chase, just to let you know," Skye started, "If you ever have a problem like today, know that I'm always there for you." Chase twitched a smile.

"Thanks, Skye." he replied. Skye smiled at him the way he smiled at her, then both started to lean closer to each other til they heard an "Aww". They quickly stopped what they were doing and turned around and saw Marshall in his doghouse watching them.

"Marshall..!" Skye tried to say quietly. "Does you mind?"

"Marshall, what did we talk about earlier?" Chase asked in frustration.

"Sorry buddy, but it's not my fault." Marshall said as he walked out of his doghouse.

"Not your fault? What are you talking about?"

"You two were in front of my doghouse, and my doghouse is in front of you, so you should've known."

"You should've shut your eyes and went to sleep!" Skye shouted. Marshall quickly shushed the cockapoo and placed his paw on her mouth.

"Quiet, unless you want everyone to watch you two."

"Marshall, seriously. Stop spying on us." Chase said.

"How am I spying when you're right in front of my doghouse about to smooch Skye?" Marshall's voice raised, getting the other pups attention.

"Shh! Marshall!" Chase placed his paw on the dalmatian's mouth. "Please don't embarrass me like that again."

"Ok! Ok!" the dalmatian tried to shout clearly. Chase smiled and moved his paw off of Marshall's mouth. "Admit that it's your fault."

"No. Like Skye said, you should've closed your eyes and pretended that you never saw us."

"But I couldn't. You were right in front of me."

"Not directly right in front of you, Marshall."

"Chase, admit it, or else."

"Or else what?"

Marshall smirked and got into a running position, then playfully tackled the german shepard to the ground. Skye's eyes widened, thinking the two were fighting again. But luckily, the dalmatian was only playfully wrestling with his best friend.

Marshall finally got the german shepard pinned down to the ground, then started rubbing his belly with his paws, tickling him. This was unexpected for Chase, and it caused him to go nuts.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WAIT! MARSHALL! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" he laughed.

"Admit it, and I'll stop." Marshall said with a giggle. Skye just chuckled. She loved seeing smiles on they're faces.

"OK! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OK MARSHALL! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Ok, what?" Marshall smirked.

The other pups walked out of their doghouses after overhearing Chase's laughter.

"YOU WIN! HEHEHEHEHEHEHE! OH PLEASE! HAHAHAHAHAHA! MAKE IT STOP!" Finally, the dalmatian stopped and hopped off of his best friend. "Oh thank you.. I can breathe..."

"Did you really say that to admit it, or did you just say that to catch your breath?" Marshall asked.

"To really admit it..." Chase admitted, sighing. "I guess I should've known."

"It's alright, buddy. We all make mistakes."

All the pups smiled and started to cheer happily by howling and barking. Marshall and Chase turned around to look at the others and gasped in surprise.

"Whoa! What are you guys doing out here for?" Chase asked.

"Yeah, I thought you all were in your doghouses." Marshall said.

"Well, we overheard Chase laughing." said Rubble.

"I didn't know you were so ticklish, Chase." Skye said with a giggle. Chase just chuckled.

"Oh yeah, well, I do have more than one weakness." he admitted. Zuma yawned aloud and said,

"I'm going back to bed. Goodnight friends."

"Night, Zuma." they all replied.

"Well, I better go to sleep too." Marshall said.

"Yeah, same here." Chase said, walking back to his doghouse. "Night, Skye."

"Night Chase. See you in the morning." Skye replied with a grin on her face. She looked at Marshall. "Thank you for not fighting him." she walked away from him and towards her doghouse.

"No problem, I guess." he said as he ran into his doghouse.

The next morning was very hot and sunny.

Marshall and Chase were still in deep sleep, but the others were wide awake.

Rocky, Rubble, and Skye were doing a staring contest while Zuma was chatting with two female pups. Ryder walked out of the house with an exhausted look on his face.

"Morning pups." he said.

"Good morning, Ryder..." Skye, Rubble, and Rocky replied, sounding like robots. Ryder just shrugged.

"Ok..."

"Oh, hey Ryder." said Zuma.

"Hey Zuma..." he noticed the two female pups next to him. "What's going on over here?"

"You know me, Ryder. The one who gets all the girls."

Ryder chuckled.

"Well I'll leave you and your friends alone." he shook his head, laughing to himself.

"Now, where were we?" Zuma asked. The two grinned and started cuddling with him.

Rocky, Rubble, and Skye were still surviving in their no blinking contest.

"Come on, Rubble, blink already!" Rocky said.

"Not happening." Rubble said. Skye just stayed quiet.

Just then, all three heard a bowl of their breakfast being shaken.

"Breakfast!" Rocky and Rubble hollered as they jumped up and ran towards Ryder. Skye was still sitting there, then she smiled.

"I win." she got onto her feet and happily walked over to Ryder.

"I'm starving!" Rocky said as he and Rubble wagged their tails happily.

"I can tell." Ryder said, chuckling. "You let Skye win the staring contest."

"Huh?" Rubble and Rocky looked at the grinning Skye.

"It's true." she said.

"Darn it!" both cried. Ryder and Skye giggled.

"Skye, can you wake Chase and Marshall up for me?" Ryder asked while sitting Rubble and Rocky's bowl of breakfast beside them.

"Sure thing, Ryder." the cockapoo walked towards Marshall's doghouse and smiled.

"Marshall..." she whispered. "Time to get up."

Marshall opened an eye and smiled.

"Breakfast already?" he asked as he stood up and stretched.

"Mhm. You and Chase have been asleep for a while now."

"Oh, well, I'm awake now."

Skye smiled. "Let's wake Chase up now."

Both walked over to Chase's doghouse and whispered,

"Wake up, Chase." But the german shepard didn't budge.

"Chase?" Marshall was starting to feel worried.

"I'm sleeping..." Chase mumbled.

"Chase, it's just me, Skye." Skye said. "It's time to eat breakfast."

"Tell Ryder I'm not hungry."

Skye and Marshall look at each other in shock.

"Chase, is something wrong?" Skye asked.

"Oh no. It's probably because of me." Marshall said.

"No, it's not you! Just leave me alone!" Chase hollered, trying to get comfortable.

Ryder walked closer to Skye, Marshall, and Chase and got down on one knee.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Chase is refusing to wake up." Skye explained in a wobbly voice.

"Hmm..." Ryder brushed a finger against Chase's left ear, which caused his ear to become twitchy. "Chase, you alright?"

"I'm sleepy..." he mumbled.

"See?" Marshall sighed. "He won't even say good morning. It's all my fault."

"Marshall, it's not your fault." Skye said.

"Can you just leave me alone?" Chase asked angrily, opening his eyes. His eyes were a bit red.

"You don't look so good." Ryder said.

"I'll be fine. Just please, leave me alone..."

"Chase, don't talk to me like that. You know better." Ryder scratched the back of Chase's ear, but didn't get a sound of pleasure from him. "Don't you like being scratched there?"

"Sorry Ryder, but I'm not in any good mood right now." Chase yawned and closed his eyes.

"Let's just let him sleep a little more." Ryder picked up the sleepy german shepard and started to walk away.

"Where are you taking him?" Skye asked.

"Into the house. Maybe he needs a quiet and cool place to get a longer sleep."

Marshall sighed. "I hope he's alright."

"I'm sure he'll be fine. He's probably just tired." Skye said.

In the house, Ryder lay Chase on a pillow.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"How many times do I have to say it, I'm -"

"Chase, don't talk to me the way you did."

Chase sighed. "I'm sorry, Ryder, sir. Truth is, I'm still kinda mad at Marshall."

"Oh, I see." Ryder pat Chase on the head. "Sometimes when you're forced to forgive someone for what they've done, it's hard to stay close to that person again. Especially when it was a fight."

Chase nodded. "Yeah.. It really is."

"Why were you two fighting, anyway?"

"Because Marshall likes eavesdropping on others, like Zuma and I."

"Really? How come?"

"He told me he saw Zuma with some other pup he may be in love with."

"Oh brother. Zuma in love..." Ryder giggled. "Well, I can't disagree, Marshall knows better than to such a rude thing. Tell you what, I'll talk to him and tell him to stop. Sounds good?"

"Sounds great. Thanks, Ryder." Chase smiled.

"Look at you, you look better already."


	3. Chapter 3

"Ryder!" Marshall hollered, charging over to Ryder and Chase as they were just coming out of the house. "Can we go to the beach?" his tail was wagging, and he was panting like crazy.

"Well, someone's in a good mood." Ryder said, chuckling. "What's going on at the beach?"

"Zuma promised me he'd teach me how to surf. I really wanna learn."

Ryder looked at Chase and saw that he had a certain look on his face. He wanted to say,

"Talk to him first! Please!" Somehow, Ryder knew what Chase wanted.

"Well, hold onto that idea. I need to talk with you in the house for a moment."

"Huh?" Marshall's happy face started to disappear.

After Marshall and Ryder entered the house, Marshall sat down on a pillow with a worried look on his face.

"What is it, Ryder?" he asked.

"Marshall, why have you been eavesdropping on others?" Ryder asked with a frown on his face.

"E-Eavesdropping? What eavesdropping? I don't eavesdrop on people." he lied.

"Marshall, you can't hide the truth. Chase told me that you've been spying on Zuma."

Marshall sighed. "Ok, it's true. But I can't help it."

"Well you need to cut it out. It's very rude. Do you know how it feels when you have a secret, and someone tells about it?"

"No. No one's ever done that to me."

"Well don't do that to others. Because one day, you'll see how hurtful and rude it is."

"I'm sorry.." he dropped his head in shame.

"It's fine. Now, do you still wanna go to beach?"

"I dunno anymore. This talk kinda spoiled my mood."

"Hey, no need for sad faces." Ryder pat the dalmatian on the head. "Wanna schedule it for tomorrow?"

Marshall thought for a minute, then smiled and shook his head "no".

"I'm good. Let's go today."

"Now that's the Marshall I like to see." Ryder grinned.

After Marshall and Ryder were out of the house and back outside, Ryder walked towards Zuma and his two female friends and asked,

"Ready to go to the beach?"

"Really? We can go?" Zuma asked, wagging his tail with excitement.

"Of course. That's very nice of you to teach Marshall how to surf."

Chase and Skye were sitting next to each other.

"So, you're okay?" Skye asked. Chase smiled.

"Perfectly fine. I'm glad Ryder talked with me." he said.

"Yup. Ryder sure knows how to cheer a bad mood up."

Marshall walked towards Chase and Skye.

"Hey Marshall." greeted Skye. Marshall growled and walked passed Skye and Chase. "Huh?" Skye and Chase looked at each other in confusion.

"What's wrong with you, Marshall?" Chase asked. The dalmatian ignored.

When Ryder and the pups arrived at the beach, it was twelve o' clock in the afternoon. The sun was shining so bright, the pups had to hurry and dip themselves in the water because of the hot sand.

Obviously, Rocky was the only pup to refuse to go swimming in the wet water, so he watched them while laying on a blanket.

Zuma was running towards the water with a purple striped surf board in his mouth.

Skye and Chase were giggling as they would run away from the waves each time they came closer to them. Marshall frowned at the two.

"Chase, you're so gonna get it.." the dalmatian mumbled under his breath as he stomped over to Chase and Skye.

"Chase, uh, do you wanna... watch the sunset with me tonight?" Skye asked nervously, blushing.

"Uh, sure. I-I'd love to." he blushed. "We should ask Ryder if we can stay here a little late, first."

"Yeah." Skye smiled, staring into his eyes. Both started to lean closer to each other, but were interrupted by the usual - Marshall. He pushed the two away from each other.

"Stop breathing on each other so much. Give each other some space." the dalmatian said.

Chase could've sworn he felt fire shoot out of his ears.

"Marshall.. How are you doing, buddy?" the german shepard tried to sound completely patient.

"Not good at all. I need to have a talk with you." Marshall said angrily with a frown on his face.

"Marshall, not right now."

"Chase, I mean it!" he hollered. Chase rolled his eyes.

"I'll be back, Skye."

"Alright." Skye said, a bit concerned.

"What is it? This better be -"

"What's gives you the right to tell on me?" Marshall cut him off.

"Huh?"

"You told Ryder about what I do."

"Well, yeah, it was the right thing to do."

"No. You got me in trouble."

"Well, sorry I did, buddy. But now you know you shouldn't spy on others, right?"

"Yeah, I guess I did. And now you're gonna learn yours."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're gonna learn not to tell on your buddy, Marshall."

"Aren't you supposed to be learning how to surf with Zuma?"

"No, not yet. Right now he's too focused on getting the ladies." Marshall tried to whisper.

"Focused on the ladies?" Chase looked at Zuma, who was pulling up to shore beside Chase and Marshall.

"I heard that." Zuma said. "Come on dude, if you wanna surf." he smiled as he walked passed four female chihuahuas. "Hey ladies." he said in a flirtatious way, getting them all to squeal and scream in excitement.

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"Ok, whatever. He's just being Zuma." Chase said. "Good ahead and learn how to surf and be cool, whatever he does."

"Ok, but this is not over yet, tattle - tail." Marshall walked away to catch up with Zuma.

Chase rolled his eyes. "Ok, Marshall.. It's definitely not over yet..." he mumbled with a frown on his face.


	4. Chapter 4

It was two o' clock, still the afternoon.

Zuma finally decided to teach Marshall how to surf, like he promised.

"Ok, first you wanna carry the board, then start to run towards the water." Zuma explained to Marshall.

"That's not hard at all." the dalmatian said as he gripped the purple striped surf board in his mouth. "Here I come, water!"

"Wait, dude. I'm not done yet."

"Oh, well then continue."

Both had no idea, but Chase was watching the whole time with a frown.

'Just look at him..' he thought, 'He looks completely lost.. He knows he doesn't have what it takes to be like Zuma... No girl would even look at him for five seconds..'

"Hey, Chase!" his thoughts were interrupted once he heard his name called. It was Rubble, who was happily running towards him and giggling.

"Oh, hi Rubble." Chase replied.

"We're playing volleyball!" he shouted happily. "Wanna play with us?"

"Uhh.. well, I actually had some other plans."

"Ok. But if you change your mind, feel free to join in."

"Ok, thanks."

Once Rubble joined back into the volleyball game, Chase looked at Marshall and Zuma again.

"Nice job, Marshall." he heard Zuma say.

Marshall was on the surf board as it floated in the water. He was struggling to keep his balance.

"O-Ok.. This isn't too bad."

"You really need to work on your balance, dude." Zuma said. "But other than that, you're doing pretty good."

"Thanks, Zuma. Uh, any more steps?"

"The next step is to learn how to surf like a pro, and I mean underneath big waves and all those extreme parts."

Marshall's eyes widened. "No! I don't wanna -"

"Not now, dude." Zuma giggled.

"We can worry about that another time, or whenever you're ready. For now, have fun surfing."

Marshall sighed in relief. "Thank goodness."

Skye marched over to Chase with a smirk.

"Hey Chase?" she called, getting his attention.

"Hey Skye. What's up?" Chase asked her.

"Oh, nothing." she sat next to him, laying her head on his chest. "Ryder said we can stay here until ten o' clock."

"That's great. We can see the sunset."

"Yeah.. Sunsets are so amazing."

"Are you saying you've seen a sunset before?" Chase looked a bit surprised.

"Oh yes, a lot of times. I don't even know how many times."

"Wow."

Skye and Chase looked at each other and smiled, blushing deeply.

"Your eyes..." Skye said.

"Oh.. uh, what about them?" Chase asked, confused.

"Your eyes remind me of looking at a sunset." she blushed. "The most beautiful sunset I've ever seen."

Chase chuckled as he blushed even more.

"I guess you're already looking at a sunset right now."

Skye smiled and nodded. Both once again started to lean closer to each other, but stopped once they realized what they were doing.

"We shouldn't.." Skye said, blushing and looking around.

"Yeah.. You know who might ruin the moment.." Chase agreed.

Just then, both heard a scream coming from Marshall. They turned around and saw Marshall losing his balance on Zuma's surf board and heading straight for them.

"Uh oh!" Skye cried as she ran out of the way.

If Chase had the chance to move out of the way, he would, but Marshall had already crashed into him. Both painfully landed on the hot sand, rolling and trembling around. Once they were able to stop, Marshall ended up on top of Chase. He chuckled and said,

"Surfing is pretty fun." he hopped off of his best friend. "How are you and Skye doing? I heard that you both wanted to watch the sunset with each other."

Chase's eyes widened. How did he know Skye had personally asked him to watch the sun go down with her?

"You -" he was going to say something, but figured that would cause another fight. He took a deep breath and stayed calm. "We're great. And yeah, I can't wait to see the sunset."

"Yeah, me too."

Chase frowned.

"Ok, why are you trying to be so nice?"

"What are you talking about? Are you saying you want me to be mean to you twenty four seven?" Marshall started to frown.

"You did have a dirty mouth earlier, saying: "This is not over yet, tattle - tail!" and now you wanna be so nice?"

"I did not have a dirty mouth. I was only saying that because you're a tattle - tail!"

"I am not a tattle - tail, so take back what you said. You know what you've done to Zuma was wrong. You've should've learned your lesson after Ryder talked to you. But looks like you didn't, because you're still doing it!"

"What are you talking about? I've stopped like you wanted me to."

"No! You somehow listened to Skye when she asked me to watch the sunset with her."

"Oops.." Marshall mumbled. "Well sorry you and Skye love each other so much."

"Yeah, you know what, you can't stop. You can't control yourself."

"Yes I can! I'm not stupid!"

"I didn't say you were stupid!" both were starting to holler at each other, getting everyone, except Ryder and Katie's attention.

"Uh oh.." Skye mumbled. The rest of the pups, including Zuma's two female friends and the chihuahuas' formed a circle around Marshall and Chase the way they did yesterday.

"You are definitely not my best friend anymore!" shouted Marshall.

"And you know what, you're not my best friend anymore either! You know why, 'cause we have nothing in common! You spy on almost everyone, including me! I don't do that!"

"You're right, Chase. We don't have anything in common at all."

"Now scram, loser!" Chase growled in the dalmatian's face.

"Loser? Why call me the loser when you're the loser?"

"Because you're the biggest loser I've ever met!"

Marshall swung his head at Chase and hit him right in the face, causing one of his teeth to fly out of his mouth and into the ocean. All the rest of the pups gasped.

"Yeah, how do you like that, loser?"

"Oww! You darn stupid freak!" he cried, placing his paws on his mouth.

"Any minute now, you're gonna be crying on Skye."

Skye was watching with a concerned look on her face.

"Chase..." she mumbled.

Tears were starting to form in the german shepard's eyes. Seeing this was starting to make Marshall feel bad.

"Gosh... I-I'm sorry, buddy.." he apologized. "I was a little too hard on you.."

Chase stood up and moved his paws away from his mouth, revealing that he had blood running down his lips. He was starting to turn around to walk away, but without warning, he tackled the fire pup to the ground and started forcing his head under water. Marshall started screaming to the top of his lungs.

"Yeah! Who's the loser now?!" the german shepard hollered as he kept bringing Marshall's head out of the water, and then pushed his head back in.

"I said I was sorry!" the dalmatian screamed.

Skye cringed at the shouting, then looked at Ryder and Katie.

'Please cut it out, Chase.. Don't get caught by Ryder..' she thought.

"This is why you shouldn't mess with me!" Chase screamed loudly, clawing Marshall in the face while pushing his head under the water.

Marshall was coughing, gasping for air, and trying to escape this cruel punishment.

"Stop!" he hollered. "Please! Stop it!"

The other pups would do something about it, but were too shocked to even do anything. They've never seen Chase so angry and violent before.

Ryder and Katie were standing near an ice cream truck, getting some for themselves and for the pups.

"Six vanilla ice creams in cups, please, and -" before Ryder finish, he heard a scream. He and Katie turned around and saw Chase forcing Marshall's head under water. "No... Don't tell me..!" Ryder quickly ran towards the pups.

"Wait, Ryder!" Katie shouted. She looked at the man in the ice cream truck and smiled. "Um, one moment, please.." she ran to catch up with Ryder.

Chase was standing on Marshall's feet so he could stop moving so much, making this torture unbearable.

"I can't breathe!" Marshall screeched, starting to wail.

"You asked for it, punk!" Chase screamed.

Ryder came running towards the fighting pups and grabbed Chase by his collar.

"Cut it out, Chase!" Ryder hollered, scaring the german shepard. "What are you trying to do, kill em'?!"

"No, Ryder, sir.. I -"

"I don't wanna hear it! You're in big trouble!"

Chase dropped his head.

Marshall was able to stand back up onto his feet and catch his breath. He was breathing really hard, still coughing and gasping. His eyes were a bit red and irritated.

The rest of the pups looked at each other in surprise.

"You alright, Marshall?" Ryder asked him.

"Sure.. I'm fine. Just need to catch my breath."

"Chase, you know better than that. You could've killed him."

"Ryder.. I wasn't -"

"I don't wanna hear it. We're going back to the lookout. We can talk about it there."

Chase felt like crying. He was never in so much trouble in his life.

Back at the lookout, Chase and Marshall were sitting down, far apart from each other.

"I am very disappointed in both of you." Ryder said, frowning. "I asked you not to fight anymore, but you didn't listen. Marshall, I want you to explain what happened."

"Well, I was being very nice to Chase, like a real best friend, but then he asked me why I was being nice to him, and it looked like he wasn't happy."

"Because you know you -" Ryder interrupted Chase by hushing him.

"You stay quiet. Let Marshall do the talking."

Chase sighed and dropped his head.

"He started calling me a loser." Marshall continued. "I told him I had no time to argue with him, so I turned around and accidentally hit him in the face with my head."

Chase couldn't believe what he was hearing.

'No he did not..' he thought. Marshall was lying, and Chase really wanted to interrupt, but knew Ryder wouldn't allow it.

"I said I was sorry, but he got very overreactive and tried to drown me under water."

"No, that's not true!" Chase hollered. "He hit me on purpose and -" Ryder sighed and grabbed a muzzle, then put it around Chase's mouth.

"Stop talking." he said. "Continue, Marshall."

"I really thought I was gonna die, and the other pups didn't do anything but watch."

Chase started shaking his head "no".

"Chase, you know better than that." Ryder said. "Do you know how dangerous that is? You could've killed em'."

Chase replied by nodded his head.

"Marshall, are you okay?"

"I'm good." Marshall replied.

"You may leave. Go have some fun with the other pups."

"Thanks, Ryder." the fire pup walked into the elevator and was soon gone.

Ryder looked at Chase with a frown on his face.

"Chase, I cannot believe you today." he said. "Since you're being a bad pup, I'm gonna have to punish you."

Chase's eyes widened. He couldn't believe his ears. He watched his owner walk around him in circles.

"Starting today, no more playing with your friends, and if you wanna go outside, you're gonna be put in a cage."

Chase couldn't believe it. He was starting to whimper, making big puppy eyes.

"No, no puppy faces, no buts, no nothing. What I say is what I mean." Ryder picked up the german shepard and walked towards the elevator.

Outside, Marshall and the rest of the pups were playing soccer, but stopped when they saw Ryder and Chase coming out of the house.

"Is Chase in trouble?" Rubble asked as he saw Ryder putting Chase in a cage. Skye had a concerned look on her face.

"Chase..?" she said to herself.

"Don't worry, your punishment will be over tomorrow morning, Ok?" Ryder said as he took the muzzle off of Chase's mouth.

"Ryder, I'm really sorry. I was just so carried away." Chase tried to explain.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Ryder put a finger over the police pup's mouth. He walked away and headed for the house, but noticed the other pups looking at Chase. "Just keep playing, pups!" he shouted.

"Ok!" Rocky replied. "Come on, guys!" they all turned around with disappointed looks on their faces. Marshall was still looking at Chase with a sigh, feeling bad about lying. Chase lay down and felt that all he could do right now is cry, and that's what he did. He noticed Marshall looking at him and made a face that said:

"Why me?"

Seeing this caused Marshall's eyes to fill with tears.

"Marshall, come on!" Zuma called.

"Oh, right.." he said, walking away.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning was very dark, foggy, warm, and early. It was only five in the morning, not the time any of the pups would wake up. But somehow, Chase had woken up, still locked in the cage.

"Man, I wish this were a nightmare.." Chase said to himself as he rolled over onto his side. "So uncomfortable..." he was so exhausted, anyone could tell he didn't get enough sleep last night. He looked up at the dark sky and sighed. "Skye probably thinks I'm an idiot for getting into trouble like this." he looked at Marshall's doghouse and frowned. ".. All because of you.. You stupid freak.." he started to yawn as he lay his head down.

It was eight in the morning, and all the rest of the pups were wide awake playing with each other. Chase just watched them, not saying a word.

Ryder walked out of the house with the pups' breakfast bag. Instead of going to their bowls, he walked over to Chase.

Chase noticed Ryder coming and sighed, then looked away.

"Morning, Chase." Ryder said as he opened the cage. "How was your sleep?"

"Oh, good morning, Ryder. I had a great night just staring at the stars and trying to get comfortable." Chase said as he stretched, then he walked into his doghouse. "Goodnight, I'm going to bed."

Ryder stared at the german shepard with surprise. "Wait, Chase, don't you want breakfast?"

"I'm not hungry." and after that was said, Chase closed the door to his doghouse.

Ryder sighed. "Chase..." But there was no response. "You'll come out when you're ready." he walked over to the other pups' bowls.

"Hey, Ryder!" called Skye and Rocky.

"Good morning, pups." Ryder smiled while pouring their breakfast in their bowls. "What's up?"

"Um, can I talk with Chase?" Skye asked.

"You can try. He's going to bed right now."

"Right now?"

"Well, he slept in that cage last night." Skye looked at his doghouse, then walked over to it with a smile.

"Hey, Chase?" Skye started knocking on his door. "It's Skye. I'd really like to talk with you."

Chase's door opened, and he had to frown on his face. "Hello, Skye." he greeted in a stern voice.

"Chase.. I missed you."

"I'm sure you did. Now goodnight." but before he could shut the door, Skye stopped him from doing so.

"Wait, Chase!" she looked down at her paws. "I'm sorry you got in trouble..."

"Yeah, you know what? That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Remember that night you told me if Marshall and I were ever in a fight again, you'd be there for me? Well, turns out that all you did was stand there and watch."

"Chase, I'm sorry. I was just really -"

"You were really scared? And didn't have the guts to speak up and tell Ryder what really happened?"

"But I -"

"Forget it, Skye. It's already too late. I feel like I can't count on any of you anymore."

"Chase, I'm sorry.. Just please, let me explain."

"Leave me alone!" the german shepard shut his door. Skye felt her heart being crushed by a big hand. She felt as if this were all her fault, and she's the one that got him in trouble. But no one except Marshall knew, this wasn't her or Ryder's fault.

Two weeks had passed by. Chase's depression had become worse. Everyday he'd sit and watch the other pups play.

One Friday night, he took a blue bag out of his doghouse, then packed his uniform and collar up, then escaped, and no one had no idea.

It was seven o' clock in the morning.

The other pups, Marshall, Zuma, Rocky, and Rubble were chatting with one another.

"Have any of you seen Skye?" Rubble asked. Zuma shrugged.

"She's probably still in her doghouse." he said.

Just then, all four heard a yelp.

"Guys!" it was Skye, galloping over to them in a rush.

"What's up, Skye?" asked Rocky.

"It's Chase..." she was panting.

"What about him?" asked Rubble.

"He's missing!"

"Missing?!" All four pups cried.

"I think he ran away!" tears were spilling out of her eyes.

"No, don't cry, Skye." said Zuma. "There's something going on.. Why would Chase run away?"

"Yeah, he's the leader. He can't run away." said Rubble.

As the pups kept talking about Chase, it made Marshall feel terrible. Now he knew it was finally time to speak up and tell the truth.

"Just stop talking about him!" Marshall hollered, startling them. He sighed. "Guys, I have a confession to make..."

"Really?" the others looked at each other.

"Chase wasn't the one who deserved to be punished. I was. I lied to Ryder about when I hit him. I said I accidentally hit him, and he overreacted to it."

"Marshall.. How could you?!" hollered Skye.

"Why would you do that to your own best friend?" Rubble asked angrily.

"Because he tried to drown me under water."

"Yeah, but all this time, I thought it was my fault." Skye said, tearing up again.

"Dude, you should feel ashamed of yourself." said Zuma, walking away from him. "Looks like it's too late to apologize. He's gone, now."

Marshall dropped his head. "Why am I always doing something wrong?" he asked himself.

"Because you're selfish." said Rocky, following the others.

Ryder walked out of the house with a smile. Marshall noticed him and gasped.

"How am I gonna tell Ryder?" he asked himself.

"Hey, Marshall. Why are you over here by yourself?" Ryder asked.

"Oh, uh, I was just looking at the grass.." the dalmatian answered, chuckling nervously.

"Ok... Where's everyone else?"

"Still asleep.. I think."

"Ok. Well when they wake up, tell them breakfast is already out for them."

"Where are you going?"

"To Katie's house. She invited me and some of her other friends to watch a movie and maybe go to the beach and stay at a hotel for one night."

"Ooh, sounds exciting." Marshall smiled, then looked at Chase's doghouse with a deep concerned look on his face. Ryder noticed and looked at Chase's doghouse also. But he didn't notice Chase missing.

"You know, you can still talk with Chase." Ryder said.

"I know, but he's really angry." Marshall looked back at Ryder.

"No need to push things, Marshall. Just give each other some time." he smiled, then started walking away. "I'll be back early in the morning tomorrow."

"Ok, Ryder." he sighed in relief, thankful that Ryder didn't notice Chase's empty doghouse. "I'm such an idiot.." he said to himself.

The next morning, it was seven o' clock.

Chase was walking towards his doghouse with the bag still around his neck.

Skye woke up and saw him, a bit surprised that he came back.

"Chase?" for a second, she thought she was just seeing things. "Chase! You're back!" she squealed loudly, waking the other pups up. "You've actually came back for us?"

"No." he said in a very stern voice. "I've come back to make sure I didn't leave anything behind." Skye stopped smiling, watching as Chase walked into his doghouse, tossing things out.

"Chase," she started in a quiet voice, "You know you're not gonna run away." the others came out of their doghouses and stood behind Skye, watching Chase throw things out. "You're gonna come right back each time. You're only trying to run away, and it's not working."

"Skye, leave me alone. Please. I don't wanna hear it." Chase growled.

"Chase, I'm telling the truth. You can't leave, you're the leader."

"Does it look like I care?!" he hollered, startling and shocking the pups. "I cannot believe I've been wasting my time risking my life to rescue others, sniff feathers, cats, and dust in order to find something, and get to know all of you!"

"Chase, don't yell at me." Skye said, still talking in her calm and quiet voice. "This whole time, you were never wasting your time. You're a good pup."

Chase rolled his eyes.

"And now you say all this kind stuff about me? Nice try, Skye. But it's not working." Now Skye was losing her patience.

"Look, you can't do this! How are we gonna tell Ryder?!" her voice raised. The police pup ignored and kept throwing things out. A stack of snapshots of Skye landed on top of Marshall's head. The dalmatian shook his head left to right til the snapshots were all over the ground.

"Whoa! You've got snapshots of Skye?" Rocky asked. The pups started to giggle, causing Chase to blush. Skye looked at one of the snapshots, then looked up at Chase, who was putting the straps of his bag around his neck again.

"I'm guessing you're taking these photos along with you." she said.

"No. They're not important." he was about to walk away when suddenly, he heard Rubble say,

"I'll hold onto the snapshots, if you don't mind, Chase."

"Give me that!" Chase growled, snatching the photos away and putting them into his bag. He wrapped the strap around his neck again and was about to walk away.

"Chase," Skye started again, getting his attention, "I'm not gonna bother you anymore, but I wanna let you know that we're gonna miss you a lot. So, can I get a goodbye hug?" Chase stared at her like she just gave out the best speech yet, then walked away. The pups watched him walk away and towards the trees.

Skye felt her heart break into a million pieces, feeling like this whole situation was her fault. She felt like catching up with him and begging him to stay.

Marshall had a very guilty look on his face. All that ran through his mind was,

'What've I done? It was just an argument, that turned into punishment...'

"Skye, I'm so sorry.." Zuma said, trying to cheer her up by giving her a friendly nuzzle on her soft face. He could hear her quiet sobbing, which made him feel bad. "Shouldn't we talk him out of this some more?"

"Just forget it." Skye said in a wobbly voice. "He's made his decision. It's over." she walked towards her doghouse with her head down, leaving the other pups watching sadly.

"Wow.. This is just very depressing." Marshall said.

The pups walked away angrily, rolling their eyes.

"Way to go, dude.." Zuma said.

"What? What are you mad at me for? He's the one running away."

Zuma did a fake chuckle and looked at Marshall like he was insane.

"Are you mad? You totally got Chase depressed, and now you got Skye depressed, too. Guess who's next?"

"But Zuma, I can't tell Ryder. You have to tell with me."

"In your dreams, dude. You're gonna have to do it yourself. It's not our fault, it's not Chase's fault, it's certainly not Ryder's fault, it's totally yours!" Zuma hollered, frowning at the dalmatian.

"But he'll hate me so much."

"Yeah? Sounds good to me, 'cause I certainly do." he stomped away, leaving Marshall feeling super guilty.

"But... I'm sorry..." tears were starting to form in his eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

It was eight o' clock at night. Katie walked into the guestroom and closed the door. She was changing into her new hot pink colored jumpsuit.

Her friends, Desmond and Johnny, slowly and quietly opened the door to the room she was in.

"Wait until she turns around." whispered Desmond, chuckling. "She's gonna flip out."

"Get out your camera." whispered Johnny.

Desmond nodded and pulled out his phone, then clicked the "record" button.

When Katie pulled her top off, Desmond started to chuckle. The blonde reacted to this by turning around and squealed loudly.

"Desmond!" she screamed, quickly covering up.

Desmond and Johnny laughed hard and closed the door before she could. Katie's face was bright red, and she was really embarrassed. She frowned and locked the door, then continued to get dressed.

Two minutes later, Katie came out of the room with her jumpsuit on, but was still very upset with Desmond. She could hear him and the boys talking and laughing about it.

When she walked into the hallway to see them, they all looked at her and smirked.

"Hey, Kay Kay!" shouted Desmond's older brother, Cameron. Katie just put her hand on her hip. "Last night was amazing, wasn't it?"

The blonde walked up to Desmond and slapped him across his face.

"Ow! Girl, why hit me?" Desmond hollered with a smirk.

"You think this is funny?!" Katie shouted angrily. Her face was still really red. "Watching me while I'm changing my clothes is funny?! You're too immature to even be my friend!"

"Too immature? Ha!" he continued laughing. Katie slapped him across his face again.

"Quit it!"

"Don't slap me, Kay!" he shouted, getting a bit angry with her.

"I can slap you when you're being stupid!"

"Stupid?" Desmond stood up and got in her face. "The only stupid in here is you slapping me in the face!"

Katie was so heated up, she pushed Desmond so hard, he fell on top of Johnny. Then both fell on top of the washing machine.

"Girl! You're dead!" he hollered. "You're so dead!"

Katie grabbed her bag and Cali as well.

"Get her, Cameron!" Desmond ordered. Cameron grabbed hold of Katie's arms before she could walk out of the room, making her accidentally drop Cali and her bag.

"Get off of me!" she screamed, trying to break free from his grip.

Cali frowned and jumped on Cameron's arm and dug her sharp claws into his skin, winning a screaming boy. Cameron grabbed the gray cat by her neck, which allowed Katie to use her free hand to bite the arm Cameron was using to choke Cali. Cameron yelped and started to cuss her out.

Katie grabbed her bag and Cali, then ran out of the room and outside.

"Get her!" hollered Desmond.

Katie continued to run, and never looked back. Cali was looking over her owner's shoulder and saw that the boys were after her, including Johnny and Desmond.

Katie made a quick turn and hid behind a brick wall. She was breathing really hard.

"You okay, Cali?" she asked her sweet looking cat. Cali replied by meowing happily. Katie moved some of her hair out of her face and sighed angrily. "Those boys... They're something else.." she mumbled.

Just then, both heard footsteps.

"Whatcha doin', Katie?" she heard Desmond whisper in her ear. "Just chillin'?"

Katie quickly got to her feet and tried to run away, but Johnny reached for her sleeve and tripped her with his shoes, getting her to fall to the ground on her stomach.

Cameron and Johnny rolled her onto her back and held her wrists down on the ground so she wouldn't get away.

"Get off of me!" she screamed, kicking around.

"I want you to regret everything you said in there." Desmond said as he pulled out a very large and sharp knife. He held it under her chin, causing her to scream to the top of her lungs.

"HELP! RYDER! HELP ME!" she screamed. Cameron put a hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.

"We're gonna have to handle this in the room." said Johnny. Desmond nodded and pulled out some duck tape, then wrapped a lot of it around her wrists and her mouth.

While taking her to the house, Cameron grabbed Cali by the back of her neck and took her also.

Rubble, Rocky, and Zuma were in a huddle.

"Ok, if Marshall doesn't tell Ryder the truth, we're gonna have to tell him ourselves." said Zuma.

"Well either way, Ryder's gonna find out. Right?" asked Rubble.

"Yeah, and Marshall's gonna be in so much trouble."

"Um, maybe we should talk about something else." said Rocky.

"How come?" asked Rubble.

Rocky pointed to an angry Marshall, who was listening to them in his doghouse.

"Ohh.. Right.." Zuma chuckled. He felt a little bad after looking at how upset Marshall was, but the lie really caused a lot of disappointment.

Ryder was in his house playing a game on his pup pad, but was interrupted when he received a call from Katie's phone. He answered by clicking on the image of Katie and said,

"Hello. Ryder here." he frowned in confusion when he saw Cali on the screen. She meowed in panic, causing Ryder to immediately become concerned. "Cali? What's wrong?"

Cali turned the phone around so that Ryder could see Katie tied down to a chair. Luckily, her mouth wasn't covered with duck tape, so she could tell Ryder what was going on.

"Ryder.." she whispered.

"Katie? What happened?"

"The boys are trying to hurt me."

"Hurt you? How come?"

"Long story.. Please help, Ryder. It's gonna storm tonight, and I really wanna get home."

"We'll be on our way, Katie. No job is too big, no pup is too small!"

Chase found himself in the woods after noticing nothing but trees around him.

'Maybe I'll have to start my life over again...' he thought. 'I'll make a new best friend that'll actually treat me like a best friend..'

He looked up at the sky to see the clouds turning gray, and lightning was starting to flash. He sighed.

'Does it have to storm tonight?' he stopped near a lake and looked at his reflection. "Maybe they'll find another police pup that's way better than me. Even Skye would probably like him better than me." he said. He felt a rain drop hit his nose. "Replacement is the best thing they could ever do.." the german shepard sat there for a while, then jumped up. "Replacement?!" The sound of thunder startled him. "I gotta get back home!" he started running fast.

The five pups sat in their positions and sighed. Not hearing Chase say "Ready for action, Ryder, sir!" got them worried, wondering how Ryder would react.

Ryder just stared at them, then started counting them.

"Where's Chase?" he asked.

Skye looked down at her paws, Rocky looked up at the ceiling, Rubble dropped his head and pretended that he didn't hear Ryder's question, Zuma looked at Marshall and frowned, and Marshall just sighed. "Ok, why are you pups acting so strange?"

All the pups looked at Marshall and frowned. Marshall noticed and rolled his eyes, then looked at Ryder.

"Well, Ryder... It's funny that you ask.. Uhh, Chase was very upset yesterday and well, ran away.." Marshall explained.

"Ran away?!" Ryder asked in shock.

"Yeah, but he came back this morning... Then ran away again.. for real this time.."

"We were trying to talk him out of it." said Zuma.

"But he was so mad." said Rubble.

Ryder looked at his pup pad and clicked on it. There was an image of a storm rolling in Adventure Bay.

"But a storm's about to happen any minute now." he said. "And if Chase gets caught in the storm, that means we have two rescue missions to take care of!"

"What's the other rescue?" asked Rocky.

Ryder clicked on his pup pad again, and on the big screen appeared an image of Katie being chased by Desmond and his angry gang. "Katie and her so called friends ganged up on her and kidnapped her. They threatened to hurt her, so we have to save her extra fast in order to rescue Chase too."

Just then, they all heard thunder rumble.

"Uh oh.." mumbled Skye.

Ryder quickly ran towards the pole and went down to his truck. All five pups looked at each other in confusion, then ran towards the slide and slid down to their trucks.


	7. Chapter 7

About twenty minutes later, Ryder and the pups finally arrived near the beach hotel. It was starting to get really dark, and lightning was starting to flash.

Once he hopped off of his ATV, he looked at Skye, who was landing her helicopter.

"Skye, I need you to fly over the woods and see if you could spot Chase." Ryder said.

"You got it, Ryder!" Skye flew away to check out the woods.

"Marshall, I'll need your ladder so I could climb up to the window and bring Katie down safely."

Marshall nodded and barked for his ladder. Once the ladder had reached the closest window, Ryder started to climb it.

"Careful, Ryder..." said Rubble, watching with deep concern.

Ryder looked through the window and could see Katie tied down to the chair, and Cali struggling to get her free. He opened the window and whispered,

"Katie..."

Katie looked at Ryder and smiled with excitement.

"Ryder, you made it." she whispered back.

"I'm gonna get you out of here." he slowly and quietly climbed into the room and made sure Katie was okay. "They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"Not yet. We've gotta hurry."

Just then, both heard stomps coming from the hallway.

"Oh no!" cried Ryder.

"Cali..! Ryder...! Lock the door..! Hurry..!" Katie tried to say quiet and quickly. Ryder charged over to the door and locked it before Desmond started to try and open the door.

"Katie, unlock the door now!" he hollered.

"Oh, sorry.. Uh, Cali locked it." Katie lied. "Cali, go unlock the door you naughty cat."

Cali smirked, immediately understanding what Katie was doing.

"You really think I'm gonna believe that cat of yours locked this door?" Desmond said.

"Can you untie it?" Katie asked Ryder as he was trying to untie the double knotted ropes.

"I might need something sharp, like scissors." answered Ryder.

"Who are you talking to?" asked Johnny.

"Myself." she answered.

"You're insane." said Desmond as he and Johnny started to giggle.

"Yes, I know." Katie pointed to a blue pair of scissors in a corner of the floor. "Use those. They can cut rope."

"What are you talking about?" asked Johnny.

"Uhh, just talking about how.. uh.. crazy I am."

"That's it. If you don't open this door right now, I'm busting in myself." said Desmond.

"Cali's trying to unlock it, but she's so tiny." Katie said in exaggeration as Ryder freed her arms. "Oh, man. Too bad I can't help."

"Katie, open the door!" he hollered.

Katie and Ryder couldn't help but giggle at how angry he was getting. Hearing both of them giggle got him and Johnny suspicious.

"Who's in there with you, Kay?" asked Johnny.

"Yeah, I'll have to answer that question another time." she said as she finally stood up after her legs were untied.

"That's it!" screamed Desmond. He took a few steps back, then charged towards the door and busted into the room. But the room was empty. The only things he saw on the floor was the blue pair of scissors, pieces of rope, and the chair they had tied Katie down to. "Where's Kay Kay?!" he shouted angrily.

Meanwhile, Skye was still flying her helicopter over the trees, not yet spotting Chase.

"Where could he be?" she asked herself. "I know he's down there somewhere."

Just then, she spotted a german shepard running passed trees, and he looked as if he were in a hurry.

"Is that who I think it is?" she zoomed in with her goggles and could see clearly that it was Chase. But he didn't have on his collar. "Yup, that's him alright." she was starting to smile and sighed in relief, thankful that she had found him. "Ryder," she started, getting Ryder, who was on his ATV with Katie to look at his pup pad, "I found Chase in the woods. He looks like he's trying to find his way back home."

"We're on our way, Skye." said Ryder. He was starting to drive faster, causing Katie and Cali to hold onto him tighter. The pups started to drive faster also.

When Ryder and the pups arrived near the woods and spotted Skye landing her helicopter near them, all hopped off of their vehicles.

"Where did you see em', Skye?" Ryder asked.

"He's deep in the woods down there." answered Skye, pointing to her left. A strong gust of wind started blowing at them, causing them to lose their balance and fall down to the ground.

"That wind is strong enough to blow Chase away." said Ryder, getting really concerned. "Come on, pups!" he zoomed into the woods.

"But Ryder, what about our trucks?" asked Rubble. "What if they get knocked over and fall into the ocean?"

"Don't worry, Rubble. That won't happen." Skye answered the concerned pup. "And even if it does, we'll still have each other."

After running into the woods, they couldn't see very well because it was getting very dark.

"Chase!" called Ryder. "Chase! Where are you?!"

"Come out, come out, where ever you are!" called Katie.

The wind was howling as it was blowing harder.

"We need to hurry!" said Ryder after they heard thunder crash. "He could be in great danger!"

Before they knew it, rain was starting to pour down hard.

"This storm is really getting out of hand." said Zuma.

Now it was nearly pitch black. Chase was trembling around while dragging the bag. The bag wasn't very heavy, so it was opening up like a parachute and pulling him away. Lightning struck a tall tree, causing it to fall on Chase's bag.

"Great, I'm stuck." he was starting to howl for help.

Skye was leading the way. But as they stopped at a certain point, Skye frowned in confusion.

"But he was coming this way." she said. "He should already be here."

Just then, all heard howling. Ryder gasped.

"That's Chase!" he screamed, running faster than the rest of them.

Chase was struggling to get free.

"Come on! I've gotta get home!" he hollered. He stopped pulling once he heard Ryder calling for him. "Ryder...?" he looked around, but it was very hard to see if he were nearby. "Ryder?! Help me!"

"Chase! Where are you?!" hollered Ryder.

"I think we're getting closer!" cried Skye, trying to speak louder than the hard pouring rain. Marshall gasped and stopped running, causing them all to stop running.

"What happened?!" asked Katie.

"There he is!" the dalmatian pointed to a struggling Chase.

"Chase!" Ryder rushed over to the pup, trembling around.

"Ryder! Pups!" Chase cried as they all ran towards him and gave him a hug, except for Marshall. He was still feeling very guilty, but was happy they had found him.

"I've gotta get you back home fast!" said Ryder, grabbing for Chase's paws and pulling him. But the bag was caught underneath the knocked over tree really good. "I need some help here." Katie and the pups wrapped their arms around each other's waists and started to pull together.

Finally, they all tumbled backwards and ended up on the ground.

"Oh no!" cried Chase after noticing his bag was flying away. "That has my collar and uniform in there!" he went after it, causing Ryder to get concerned.

"Chase! Wait up!" Ryder called.

Chase grabbed onto the strap of the bag with his teeth, trying to get the bag to stop flying away from him like a parachute.

"Uh oh! It's taking him away!" shouted Rocky.

"Let it go, Chase!" screamed Katie as they all started chasing after him.

Finally, Ryder stopped running when he noticed they were finally out of the woods, but also realized Chase was headed for a cliff.

"Chase! Just let it go!" Ryder shouted.

Chase wanted to listen, but he didn't want to lose his uniform, his collar, and the snapshots of Skye. He was trying his best to control the bag, but it wasn't working.

Suddenly, Chase realized he was about to fall off of a cliff and drown in freezing cold water. As a strong gust of wind blew him off of the cliff, Ryder and the others stopped running and gasped in shock.

"Chase!" hollered Ryder. He ran over to the edge of the cliff and sighed in relief. Chase was hanging onto a branch, but it didn't look very strong. "Hang on, Chase! I've got you!" Ryder tried reaching for Chase's paws.

Suddenly, the branch snapped after another gust of wind blew at them. The branch was wet, which wasn't good for Chase. His paws weren't able to hold onto it any longer.

"Keep holding on!" Zuma hollered.

Finally, the branch snapped right before Ryder could grab for Chase's paws.

"NO!" screamed Ryder. Before he knew it, Chase was already in the freezing cold water. It was so cold, he couldn't even swim.

Ryder held in his breath, then was about to dive into the ocean when Katie quickly grabbed him by the arm.

"Don't go! It's too deep and cold down there!" she said. "You don't have your life jacket."

Rubble gasped. "That's because we left our vehicles behind!"

Ryder slapped himself on the forehead.

"He's gonna drown!" cried Skye, watching as Chase was being swallowed by gigantic waves.

"HELP!" Chase screamed loud enough for them all to hear him.

"We have to do something!" hollered Zuma.

"My wings!" cried Skye. "I'll fly down there and bring him back up safely."

"Be careful, Skye. Those waves are big enough to knock you over and drown you." said Katie.

"Don't worry, Katie. I'll be extra careful." Skye barked for her wings. "This pups gotta fly!" she cheered as she took off. But before she was even close to the water, lighting struck one of her wings. "Oh no! I'm falling!" she screamed.

"Skye!" Ryder reached for the cockapoo before she could fall down towards the water.

"Thanks, Ryder." she licked him on the cheek.

"You guys, there's nothing else we can do to help him." said Zuma.

Ryder's eyes were becoming teary. His heart was breaking while watching his police pup get beat by strong and big waves.

Finally, after a gigantic wave drowned Chase, it was over. He was nowhere to be seen.

"He's gone..." said Ryder. He dropped to his knees. "He'll wash away from Adventure Bay and end up somewhere else. Without us.." he put his hands over his face and started sobbing.

Katie wrapped an arm around Ryder's shoulder and dropped her head, feeling very bad for him.

"W-We'll never see him again." Skye said to herself, starting to sob as well.

"What've I done?!" hollered Ryder. "I should've never punished him like that!"

Marshall felt really terrible at this point. Ryder really thought this whole situation of Chase running away wad his fault, when it was Marshall's. He knew he had to tell. But didn't want to at this point.

"Ryder..." Katie whispered. "We've gotta get back home before we all lose our lives, too." she had tears running down her cheeks as well.

"You're right..." Ryder stood up and started walking away with Katie and the pups.


	8. Chapter 8

One month passed by since the terrible storm and the painful loss of Chase.

Chase was found on shore unconscious. A young man took him to a vet to make sure he was okay. After finding out, he took the pup with him and brought him to Pennsylvania.

Chase woke up with an irritating headache. As he looked around, everything seemed blurry, and he thought was blind for a minute. Finally, his vision was clear, and he could see a man with brown greasy hair looking down at him with a smile.

"Ryder..?" Chase started rubbing his eyes, thinking he was just seeing things.

"Oh, you talk?" asked the man.

"You're not Ryder... are you?"

"Ryder? No. Who's Ryder?"

"He's my owner.. I'm supposed to be home." he explained in his weak voice.

"Well, I don't know where your owner is, but I got your bag. If it's yours, anyways." the man reached for the blue bag that was in the back seat.

"It is mine. Thanks." Chase smiled weakly. "Where am I?"

"In my mini van."

"Well, I know that. Am I still in Adventure Bay?"

"Adventure Bay? Uh, no. You're in Pennsylvania."

"Pennsylvania?!"

"Shh! Don't hurt your throat."

"B-But I thought I was home.. with all my friends." tears were forming in his eyes.

"Don't cry. Everything will be just fine." the man started rubbing the pup's belly.

"Why did you bring me all the way out here?"

"I found you on shore. I took you to a vet, and you were just fine. So, I decided to take you out here with me."

"Didn't you see my collar?"

"Why yes I did. And I know exactly who you are."

"Then... why didn't you bring me back home?"

There was a short pause in their conversation.

"Because I can't afford to bring you back." the man finally answered.

"Oh.." Chase dropped his head.

"I'm very sorry." the man tried to think fast, before the pup could start crying. "I know someone who can take good care of you."

Chase looked up at the man and lifted his ears. "Who?" he asked.

Ryder was in his room sitting in his chair and staring at the wall. He was so depressed. Chase was his favorite police pup, and was ever since he adopted him.

Every night was very hard for Marshall. He was always having nightmares, and would wake up in the middle of the night quietly sobbing.

Zuma and the others would try to get Marshall to talk with Ryder and tell the truth, but he would refuse.

One quiet morning, Marshall woke up with a very bad headache. Like he expected, Zuma was right next to his doghouse, trying to get his attention.

"Marshall, buddy? Are you awake?" asked Zuma.

"Sure..." Marshall answered, hiding his face so Zuma wouldn't see him cry.

"How are you feeling?"

"What do you think? Why are you talking to me anyway? I thought you hate me."

"Marshall, I don't hate you.. We can't stay mad at you forever, and you know that."

Marshall sighed. "I'll talk with Ryder when I'm ready, just give me some time."

"Marshall, you always say that. This is taking you forever to be strong and tell the truth. You can't hide it for long."

"... I guess you're right, Zuma." Marshall walked out of his doghouse and looked at Zuma.

As Marshall started to walk away angrily towards the house, Zuma started to follow.

".. Marshall.." he started. "Do you want me to come with you? I'm sorry when I said I wouldn't go with you."

"No, it's fine, Zuma. It would be better if I do this on my own."

A minute later, Marshall was in the house. His heart was racing, and he had a feeling that he was going to change his mind about telling Ryder, but had no choice.

The dalmatian pup peaked in the room and saw that Ryder was looking at a picture of him and Chase when Chase was a tiny little pup. Marshall sighed.

'Look at what I've done...' he thought.

Ryder looked back at Marshall and tried to smile.

"Hi Marshall.." he greeted. "What's up?"

It was hard for Marshall to respond after seeing how terrible Ryder looked; His eyes were red and irritated, he had bags under his eyes, his face was pale, and his nose looked like it's been blown a billion times.

"Oh, uh, I just wanna talk with you." he finally replied.

"Look, Marshall... Last month wasn't your fault, Ok? It was all my fault."

Marshall shook his head "no". "Ryder, that's not true. You had nothing to do with Chase running away from home."

"Then why else would he have gone away?"

"..." Marshall kept his mouth shut for a few seconds, then answered, "Remember when Chase was trying to drown me under water?" Ryder nodded. "Well, this time I drowned him with my lie."

Ryder stared at the dalmatian like he didn't hear a word he was saying. "Your lie? What are you talking about?"

"Ryder... The truth is that I lied about Chase overreacting. I really did hit him first, and knocked his tooth out."

"You lied to me?!" Ryder was starting to frown.


	9. Chapter 9

"You know better than to lie to me, Marshall!" Ryder's voice raised in anger. "This entire time I thought this was all my fault! But it's not!"

"I'm so sorry... But I didn't know this would cause Chase to run away." said Marshall. "I would've said something sooner, but I knew right after telling you, you'd hate me and never want to be with me again."

"Marshall, I'd never hate you. But now look at what you've done!" Ryder paused for a minute, then dropped his head. "No.. It's all my fault too..."

"Huh?"

"I should've let him tell his side of the story."

"Ryder... It's not your fault, it's -"

"Just forget it!" shouted Ryder, which scared that dalmatian. "You've made the biggest mistake in your whole life. So you're -"

"It's okay, Ryder... I'll just punish myself.." Marshall walked out of the room with his head down. Ryder slammed his door shut.

Marshall had tears running down his eyes as he lay next to an Air Conditioner, letting himself freeze to death.

"I'm s-such a bad pup..." he said to himself while whimpering.

Meanwhile, it was pouring down raining in Pennsylvania. Chase was getting soked in the wet rain, so he hid underneath a patio. While dragging his bag along with him, he noticed a snapshot of Skye slip out.

"Oh no!" he grabbed for it and made sure it wasn't wet. He sighed after looking at Skye's eyes. "How long have I been away from you?" he was starting to tear up a bit. "This had nothing to do with you... I promise you..." he said to the photo of his crush. He put his paws over his eyes and started whimpering, but stopped when he heard a door open from behind him. He turned around to see a woman looking down at him.

"Oh my, what are you doing out here in this cold weather?" she asked with her hand on her chest. Chase whimpered and dropped his head. "No collar." she smiled. "You wanna come in my house?" Chase started wagging his tail, which told the woman he wanted to. She picked the depressed pup up and quickly ran into the house. "You must feel so cold after laying in the rain like that."

"Nah, I'm okay.." Chase told her.

"Oh, you talk?!" she almost freaked out.

"Yeah.."

"No way!" she shrieked. "This is amazing. Am I the only person to have a talking dog on this earth?"

"I did have an owner, ma'am."

"Oh, you do? Well then where's your collar?"

"In my bag." the german shepard took the straps of his bag off of his neck.

"Do you have a name?"

"Chase."

"Nice to meet you, Chase. I'm Stephanie. Say, your name sounds very familiar."

"Oh, uhh.. yeah."

"Well, how come you're not with your owner?"

Chase sighed, not wanting to explain the situation.

"I was caught in a storm a month ago, and my owner and my friends were trying to help me, but the wind was super strong, and it blew me away."

"Oh my! Well, how did you get caught in the storm?"

"I... I ran away.. I fought with my best friend a couple of times and my owner punished."

"Only you?" she asked, putting her hand against her heart. Chase nodded.

"I've been so depressed. I don't think he even cares for me anymore. We were so close."

"Aw, don't think like that. I'm sure he cares for you. I really care for you." Chase just whimpered and dropped his head. "Let me show you." Stephanie put her warm hand on the back of Chase's head, and with her long and red polished nails, began to gently scratch the back of his ear. The pup immediately reacted to this by grunting in pleasure.

"Ohh yeah! Right there!"

"Aww, you sound so cute."

"Ahh, yeah... Please keep going.." Chase begged, laying on his side and kicking one of his legs around.

"Oh, I'll keep going alright." she smiled, using her other hand to scratch his back.

"That's the spot too.. Aahh..."


	10. Chapter 10

A cloudy morning was occurring in Pennsylvania. Chase had Stephanie laughing so hard in the living room, telling her about how competitive the pups were around each other.

"Wow, you're so funny.." she said. Chase just grinned.

"Sure, I guess. My best friend was more like the class clown, though."

"What was your friend's name?"

"His name's Marshall." after saying his name, Chase immediately had a flashback of when Ryder put him in the cage. "Well, he was my best friend.."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you see, we were really great friends, even if he was immature."

"Go on.."

"Well, one day he told me about spying on one of my friends, and I kinda got a little upset about it. We started yelling at each other, then started to fight."

Stephanie gasped. "Oh dear!"

"After that, we got in trouble. Then we became friends again. Then the next day, we started fighting again because I told on him, and he got a little upset about it. I tried drowning him because he hit me in the face and knocked my tooth out. Then I ended up getting in trouble, and was punished. I wasn't supposed to be punished, though."

"What do you mean by that?"

"He lied to our owner about what happened. He told him that he accidentally hit me in the face, and I overreacted. But that's not the truth."

"Oh, that's so sad.."

"I know.. A few days later, I decided to run away. But once I ended up in the forest, I realized that they'd end up replacing me. So I tried running back home."

"Were you blown away by the storm?"

"Yup. I was knocked into the cold ocean, right when my family tried to save me..." Chase realized he had used the word "family", and that made him feel terrible. Because he knew they were a family to him, and now he felt like he had ran away from his own family.

"I'm so sorry..." Stephanie hugged him tightly. "Do not worry, I promise I will take very good care of you."

"Thank you miss... miss... uh.."

"You can just call me Stephanie."

"Right." Chase smiled.


End file.
